1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article management system configured to manage articles by reading information stored in radio frequency identification (RFID) tags attached to the articles, RFID tags used in the article management system, and an apparatus for reading RFID tags.
2. Description of the Related Art
In article management, it is known that an information holding portion, such as a barcode and an RFID tag, is provided for an article to be managed, and an apparatus for reading information configured to read the held information contactlessly has been known. For example, if an RFID tag is provided as the information holding portion, it is referred to as an RFID system.
In this system, a label-shaped RFID tag includes an RFID tag circuit element. The RFID tag circuit element includes an IC circuit part storing predetermined RFID tag information and an antenna connected to the IC circuit part for information transmission/reception. Even if the RFID tag is stained or arranged in a hidden place, the RFID tag information of the IC circuit part can be accessed (for information reading/writing) from a reader/writer. Thus, the system has been put into practical use in various fields.
Here, a method of storing predetermined identification information (tag ID) in the IC circuit part of the RFID tag circuit element and storing and holding article information (or target information) (or a part thereof) of a target corresponding to the identification information in a database has been already known. In this case, for example, the identification information of the RFID tag circuit element relating to the target is read by the reader, and the database is searched on the basis of the read identification information, so that the target information relating to the target is obtained from the database as appropriate.
As a prior art reference, there is an article management system described in JP, A, 2005-8346, for example. In this article management system (book collection management system), an RFID tag circuit element for book is provided for each book whose location is to be identified, while an RFID tag circuit element for shelf configured to having location information is provided at each shelf of a bookcase for movement management of the books. Further, a database is provided that stores correlation information (association information) between the tag ID (first tag identification information) of the RFID tag circuit element for book and book information and correlation information (association information) between the tag ID (second tag identification information) of the RFID tag circuit element for shelf and shelf information, and an operation terminal (a processing computer) is connected thereto, to enable searching the database.
In the above prior art reference, when movement or taking-out of each book is detected and managed every predetermined period, for example, an administrator moves a portable reading device across a shelf of books to sequentially read first tag identification information of an RFID tag circuit element for book provided for each book from one side of the shelf to the other side, read second tag identification information of an RFID tag circuit element for shelf when the reading device reaches the end of the shelf, and the two types of the tag identification information are both transmitted to an operation terminal via radio communication. After that, the administrator performs database manipulation at the operation terminal to associate the first tag identification information and second tag identification information transmitted from the reading device, by which book information such as the name and contents of each book and location information (shelf information) of the book are associated with each other and stored in a database, and the data is updated.
When it is necessary to know where a book should be arranged and stored in a bookcase, the administrator needs to first use the portable reading device to read first tag identification information from an RFID tag circuit element of the book, and then needs to use the terminal for operation to access the database with the first tag identification information of the RFID tag circuit element of the book, so as to obtain second tag identification information stored in an RFID tag circuit element of a shelf where the book is to be placed. This may impose an operation burden on article (book) management, resulting in inconvenient use.